Coffee Infused ‘Baci Di Dama’

Thank you so much to one of our favourite cooking blogs “Le Pétrin” for this recipe! It’s one for the Italians today- a ‘Baci Di Dama’ infused with coffee, supposed to be the most romantic biscuits of all time. Read her article here!

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix the powdered nuts with the icing sugar, vanilla sugar, pinch of salt, coffee and sifted flour.

2. Add diced butter and work into the dry ingredients with two knives. Add egg whites and roughly knead with your hands until it’s all incorporated. (Be careful not to overwork the mixture, otherwise the result will be hardened biscuits rather than remaining soft).

3. Form balls with the dough, around 10g each, forming around 62. Leave enough space between each ball as you place them on a baking tray. Leave to cool in the fridge for at least an hour (the freezer for half an hour if you’re in a hurry), or preferably overnight. The advantage of leaving the dough in the fridge overnight is for the coffee flavour to infuse into the biscuit as much as possible. It also ensures that when we bake the cookies, they don’t spread too much.

4. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5-6 or 160°C, and line a separate tray with baking paper. If the dough was chilled overnight, line the balls up on the tray, leaving sufficient space between each ball, and let come to room temperature for 10 minutes before baking. If the dough has not been chilled overnight, line up on the tray and place straight in the oven.

5. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes- the biscuits will rise and golden in colour. Let cool on a wired rack.

6. While baking, melt the chocolate on a bian marie, heating until only 3/4 of the mixture is melted, then mixing it off the heat to avoid burning the chocolate. As soon as the cookies are cooled, spread some chocolate on the flat side of the biscuit. Join two cookies end to end, forming the ‘bacio’, and place on another sheet of baking paper so the chocolate can set. You can keep the biscuits in an airtight container for several days.